Droid Life » WWDChttp://www.droid-life.com
An intense Android news community bringing you the latest in phones, rooting, apps, and reviews.Sat, 01 Aug 2015 18:19:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Can We Get a Better Digital Assistant Without Violating Our Privacy? [Opinion]http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/08/can-we-get-a-better-digital-assistant-without-violating-our-privacy-opinion/
http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/08/can-we-get-a-better-digital-assistant-without-violating-our-privacy-opinion/#commentsMon, 08 Jun 2015 19:40:45 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=168666Can We Get a Better Digital Assistant Without Violating Our Privacy? [Opinion] is a post from: Droid Life
]]>AI, or artificial intelligence, is an old idea, but it’s still probably the most important technological leap that we’ve yet to make. We’ve been inching closer with things like Google Now, Siri, and Cortana, but we are still so far away. As we inch closer, though, there’s an implementation battle happening. The question we have been asking for the past few years is whether Google will get better at design faster than Apple will get better at web services. I think the new question we need to wrestle with is, can Apple make better apps and services without violating our privacy faster than Google can do so by hoarding all of our information and possibly violating our privacy?
Apple introduced us to the idea that we could have a personal, intelligent assistant with us on our phones with Siri in 2011, but Google took things a step further in 2012 with Google Now. With Siri, we could ask our phones for information and to do things for us, but Google made it so that our phones (or more accurately Google’s servers) would do things without us even asking for them. When Now works properly it is brilliant, but when Google pretends to not know something about you it can be incredibly frustrating.

When I was reviewing the Galaxy S6, I told Google Now to call my wife. It asked me who my wife is. Google doesn’t know a lot of things about me, but Google absolutely knows who my wife is. There’s a plethora of information indicating who my wife is on Google’s servers, but with this request Google pretended it didn’t know. To make matters worse, Google asked me if I wanted it to remember that she was my wife; I said yes, but the next time I asked Google to call my wife it asked who she was again. Granted, that may be a bug, but it’s built on a foundation where Google is still pretending to not know much about us.

I get it. Google doesn’t want to seem any more creepy than it has to to stay competitive. Most people don’t realize just how much information companies like Google and Facebook have about us. When Google first unveiled Now there was a bit of shock. How can they know about this kind of stuff? They know where I work and when I should leave? Is this not violating my privacy? Then most users settled in and let Google take control, because for most people convenience is more important than privacy.

For a long time I have been assuming that Apple’s future may be in trouble, not because they will stop making amazing products, but because of their stance on privacy. Then WWDC 2015 happened. Apple announced a bunch of Siri integration that does a lot of predictive work to guess what information you might need or want and all of it is done without storing your data in the cloud. It’s nothing short of astonishing, not because of the features, but because they are doing this without a gigantic database of information about you.

Throughout the WWDC keynote, Apple announced several new features and ended with the refrain, “You’re in control.” It’s another obvious shot at Google, but I think it’s an important one. While Google has made it much easier to control what personal data of mine they retain to use their services, I honestly had never considered if Google could make just as powerful of services without my information. I was assuming it was impossible until now. I still think it’s incredibly difficult, but maybe we can keep control of our data and still have incredibly helpful AI, too.

I think Google Photos is Google’s first way of showing how they can use their search technologies to actually make a superior product without tying it into the rest of Google. Photos shows incredible reserve on Google’s part because they recognize that privacy is a huge obstacle they face with maintaining trust with their users. I don’t think Google is going to do that with products like Now, though. The opportunity to leverage our information to make better educated guesses about what we need is too great.

Apple has always been more privacy focused than Google (and even privacy focused as a means to communicate a competitive advantage against the search giants), which is good for consumers, but ultimately bad for them if Google gets there first and is able to convince the vast majority of users that trading their information for features is a fair exchange. Part of me thinks that it is absolutely fair, but the other part of me wants to see Apple meet Google’s challenge and create something that is just as capable of helping me without me having to trust someone to keep my information safe on their servers. We need that kind of assistant so that we can live more present lives that allow us to use technology when it’s appropriate and let it work for us in the background otherwise.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/08/can-we-get-a-better-digital-assistant-without-violating-our-privacy-opinion/feed/94WWDC 2015 Live Blog! Incredible. Beautiful. Fantastic. Great. Amazing.http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/08/wwdc-2015-live-blog-incredible-beautiful-fantastic-great-amazing/
http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/08/wwdc-2015-live-blog-incredible-beautiful-fantastic-great-amazing/#commentsMon, 08 Jun 2015 16:01:33 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=168662WWDC 2015 Live Blog! Incredible. Beautiful. Fantastic. Great. Amazing. is a post from: Droid Life
]]>Apple’S WWDC 2015 is happening this morning, in case you didn’t already know. WWDC doesn’t stand for “What Would (Jesus) Do (in) Charades” or “Willy Wonka Dots Candy” or “Where’s Waldo, Dammit, Come’on!” It stands for “Worldwide Developer Conference.” Forget the fact that Apple is using two Ws out of Worldwide, which is one word, and focus on the fact that we shall once again live blog the hell out of the happenings. Yes! Another DL Apple live blog is upon us.

According to the Apple blogs of the world, Apple should give us a new music service, that won’t be revolutionary by any means and will cost the standard $9.99 per month. Apple will try to trick you into thinking it’s great and different by offering exclusives on albums from their friends like Beyonce, Drake, and U2 (lulz). Of course, those exclusives only hang around for so long because record labels like to actually sell albums in lots of places. It’ll basically be a re-branding of Beats Music…with some temporary exclusives…yeah.

We should see iOS 9 and whole bunch of Android features from KitKat. KitKat came out a long time ago, so I couldn’t tell you what that means.

Then, Apple will bring the heat with a watch SDK for Apple Watch. It’ll let apps run faster, since right now, you can’t do anything with a 3rd party app on Apple Watch without buffering for a good minute.

But the iOS 9 and Watch SDK probably won’t actually be out for months, so don’t bother getting excited about it now.

Fun, right? The event kicks off at 10AM Pacific (1PM Eastern). If you want to watch it, you’ll have to use an Apple device or install Safari. You can watch it here.

We will also live blog the event below. There will be commentary, snark, giggles, and, more snark. Join us!

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2015/06/08/wwdc-2015-live-blog-incredible-beautiful-fantastic-great-amazing/feed/150New iOS 8 Features That Android Actually Needs to Adopthttp://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/best-ios-8-features/
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/best-ios-8-features/#commentsMon, 02 Jun 2014 20:49:16 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=141787New iOS 8 Features That Android Actually Needs to Adopt is a post from: Droid Life
]]>Apple is done with its WWDC keynote, where they introduced a bunch of new features for iOS 8, plus a new version of OS X called Yosemite. We poked fun ata handful of them already, but believe it or not, we are also capable of giving props when we see something cool or that we would like to see on Android at some point. I know, I know, you are probably wondering what I have been drinking over the last couple of hours, but hang with me for a second. You have to admit that Apple is really doing a great job at making all of the experiences seamless from iPhone to iPad to computer. They are also doing a pretty impressive job when it comes to making it easy to get in touch with or share things with the people you chat with the most.

So here we go – these are the iOS 8 features that were introduced today that we actually found to be pretty cool. Feel free to agree or disagree, of course.

Interactive Notifications

With Interactive Notifications, Apple is giving you actionable items in a notification. These aren’t groundbreaking by any means, but something as simple as being able to quick-reply to someone in a message without leaving your current app, is pretty cool. We have something similar on Android (have had for a while), but these seem to take the idea one step further. With Android, when you tap a button in a notification, you are taken out of your current app and into the app attached to the notification. On iOS 8, a text notification lets you respond (with a keybaord) within the notification without leaving your current position.

Sure, there are 3rd party apps that do this on Android already, but building this functionality into the OS would be awesome, especially so developers from all sorts of apps could take advantage of it.

Automatic Hotspot and Phone calls

Apple introduced a way for an iPhone to automatically become a hotspot for your computer and then also give you the ability to answer or make calls through your computer. I know what you are going to say, “We have Google Voice and Hangouts and hotspot apps already on Android!” But see, that’s the thing – this is all seamless integration that doesn’t require launching an app or signing up for Google Voice. With Apple’s new voice call and hotspot integration, everything is just ready to work.

With the Hotspot idea, your computer recognizes that your iPhone is near and then lets you connect to it via hotspot to use your phone’s data connection. It just appears in your list of WiFi options to connect to without ever turning anything on on your iPhone. On Android, you could tap on a widget or icon to load up your hotspot, then activate it, but automatic is automatic, and something I think we would all prefer.

With voice calls on iOS 8, you can answer or place calls on your computer as long as your iPhone is attached (likely tethered) to your computer. Now, you can do this with Google Voice/Hangouts integration on Android, but that’s another app or service you have to sign-up for. Apple is allowing you to do all of this without signing up for something separate. Google seems to be moving this direction with Hangouts (or has at least promised that it’s coming), but here we are still waiting for it to arrive while Apple is rolling it out.

Quick Access to Favorite People

In iOS 8, a double tap on the iPhone’s home button not only brings up a list of your recently used apps, but it now shows you recently talked to people, along with a swipe that will quickly bring in your favorites. You can see how awesome this would be for those of us who talk to a number of people throughout a day. On Android, you would either need to load up Hangouts or the People app to call or start a conversation with someone (after you locate them), but wouldn’t it be nice to always have those people a quick gesture or shortcut away? It seems like Google could add a favorite/recently-talked-to people section to their multi-tasking screen. Again, there are apps on Android that can make accessing your favorite people pretty easy, but this is built right into iOS 8 and always available from any screen.

Messages, Group Messaging, etc.

Hangouts is a decent messaging app on Android, but iMessage or Messages on iOS is a much better, more well-rounded solution. Apple introduced all sorts of new group controls today, like a map that shows locations of participants in a group message, a list of attachments gathered together, easy DND, and even a way to add or remove contacts at any time. They added voice notes and video notes (that play natively), along with even more access through Messages on other Apple devices.

I mentioned this above, but a lot of this stuff could be coming to Hangouts, it just seems like Google is taking their sweet timing bringing it to us.

Family Sharing

Apple introduced family sharing of a number of items today, but most importantly, is content purchased through iTunes. Your family now all (up to six devices) have access to items purchased with the same credit card on their iOS devices. So if you are all using a same credit card and if someone used that card to buy a new album or movie, you can grab it too, at any time without having to pay for it again. With Android devices, you would have to add the same Gmail account to multiple devices in order to experience something similar. I actually have a setup like this with my wife, and I can tell you right now that it is a pain in the ass.

App Bundles

The final feature we saw from the lengthy WWDC keynote that we would love to see on Android, was the announcement that the Appstore will enable developers to sell app bundles. An app bundle is exactly what you think it is – a group of apps that can be purchased for a single price. That could be a game developer bundling all of their games together for a discounted rate for a period of time. Or maybe Google could grab a bunch of their favorite apps from top developers and bundle them together for a promotional deal on Google Play to celebrate a holiday. You get the point. Apple is there, Google is not, yet.

Anything else you saw from WWDC today that you were a fan of? Anything you would like to take a jab at? Share it below.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/best-ios-8-features/feed/2913rd Party Widgets, Keyboards, and Sharing All Finally Coming to iOShttp://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/3rd-party-widgets-keyboards-and-sharing-all-finally-coming-to-ios/
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/3rd-party-widgets-keyboards-and-sharing-all-finally-coming-to-ios/#commentsMon, 02 Jun 2014 18:45:22 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=1417933rd Party Widgets, Keyboards, and Sharing All Finally Coming to iOS is a post from: Droid Life
]]>After reinventing the keyboard with predictive text in iOS 8, and trying its hand at Google Now-like integration and Google Voice, Apple moved on to a new SDK feature that they are calling “Extensions,” today at WWDC. What are extensions? Well, they do a number of things, like enable 3rd party widgets, sharing, and keyboards. Impressive, right?

So those keyboards, like Swype, Swiftkey, or any of the other four-dozen keyboards on Android that you all have had available for years, could potentially make their way to Apple, so that you could avoid using that impossible-to-type-on Apple ‘board. Apple enthusiasts should be throwing the biggest party in history, just for that announcement alone.

With sharing, that means that Dropbox or Box or Pinterest or a non-official Twitter app could build in the ability to share directly from an app. In the past, Apple only allowed specific apps to have this power, like the official Twitter app. But with this new 3rd party sharing extension, almost any developer can add in sharing. So on Android, how since the dawn of time, you were able to share things with any Twitter app you choose or to Instagram or to another browser or to WhatsApp, you will soon be able to do the same on iOS.

And finally, Widgets are here! Now, to be fair, Apple introduced their own closed-off widgets integration a while back – these are “widgets” that hang out in the notification pulldown. But now, with iOS 8, 3rd party developers can introduce widgets as well, all of which can be displayed in your notification pulldown. This may not be full-widget-integration with all sorts of control like you get on Android, but it is certainly a step ahead from where widgets used to be on iOS.

I’m sure we will have more. Stick with us for all the WWDC reinventions that a person can handle.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/3rd-party-widgets-keyboards-and-sharing-all-finally-coming-to-ios/feed/174Apple Copies Every Android Keyboard on Earth, Introduces QuickType Predictive Texthttp://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/apple-copies-every-android-keyboard-on-earth-introduces-quicktype-predictive-text/
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/apple-copies-every-android-keyboard-on-earth-introduces-quicktype-predictive-text/#commentsMon, 02 Jun 2014 18:02:32 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=141783Apple Copies Every Android Keyboard on Earth, Introduces QuickType Predictive Text is a post from: Droid Life
]]>Hey, WWDC is happening (our live blog is here) and we are beginning our list of things that Apple has invented in the new version of their mobile operating system, iOS 8. If you didn’t catch the sarcasm in that line, what I really mean is, a list of features that have been on Android for years that Apple is just now getting to.

First up, QuickType, a feature added to Apple’s keyboard. What does QuickType do? It predicts what you want to type by showing you suggestions. Think Swiftkey, Google Keyboard, Swype, and every other keyboard introduced on Android since, I don’t know, 2011?

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/apple-copies-every-android-keyboard-on-earth-introduces-quicktype-predictive-text/feed/128Live Blog: Apple’s WWDC 2014 – Incredible. Beautiful. Fantastic. Great. Amazing.http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/apple-wwdc-2014/
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/06/02/apple-wwdc-2014/#commentsMon, 02 Jun 2014 15:25:20 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=141732Live Blog: Apple’s WWDC 2014 – Incredible. Beautiful. Fantastic. Great. Amazing. is a post from: Droid Life
]]>Today, is WWDC day. In other words, all of tech stops to watch and see what Apple has reinvented to make the world a better place. This is the kick-off to Apple’s developer conference, which typically means we will see big updates to iOS and OSX. There may be new hardware involved, but this week is often reserved for the software side of things.

As Apple announces new features and versions of their operating systems, Android fans will sit back with a smirk and say things like, “We have been doing that on Android forever – how is that new?” or “Welcome to 2010, Apple fans.” Apple fans will respond back with, “But Apple did it better!” It’s a silly time, really, but one that we love to participate in. After all, the competition between Apple and Android hasn’t really slowed over the years. Tech fans are an opinionated bunch who like to take sides.

So even though we are an Android site, watching Apple keynotes and live blogging them has become a ritual around here. We like to see what Apple is up to, but more importantly, we love to see how you all react.

The keynote kicks off at 10AM Pacific (1PM Eastern). Apple will live stream today’s WWDC happenings here. You will probably need an Apple product in order to watch it, though. To follow along without the live stream, be sure to hit up the live blog below.

Tim Cook and crew are now off stage at WWDC, so as is typical around these parts when Apple announces something “revolutionary” (yes, they used the term again), we like to react. And even though Google has moved away from the series of cheap jabs during their own keynotes, Apple still does them in the bitterest and childish of fashions. If we didn’t toss out some thoughts in support, we wouldn’t be proper Android fans. Because after all, we are still Android fans.

So here we go, these are some initial thoughts to Apple’s big announcement of iOS 7 as compared to the current version of Android (4.2, Jelly Bean). In general, iOS 7 is a newly skinned version of iOS that finally matches up to current mobile design trends. Gone are the leather notebooks and green felt gaming tables – in is a minimal flat aesthetic. And to be perfectly honest, it does look beautiful. Jony Ive and his team did a fantastic job at skinning iOS and turning it into a modern looking mobile UI.

But every time Apple does this song and dance, we seem to sit throughout the keynote going, “Whoa, that’s been on Android forever.” Or even, “Umm, that looks just like how Android works.” Today was no different. While iOS 7 looks nice from the outside, many of the new goodies remind us a lot of our favorite mobile OS.

And not that we should need to remind you, but don’t take this too seriously. We’re just having some fun and pointing out things that gave us a chuckle. We are happy to see iOS evolve, just like we will be happy to see every other mobile OS evolve. Companies pushing boundaries and taking features to new levels is what we love about this industry.

(iOS 7 on the left, Android screenshot attached on the right.)

Quick Toggles (Command Center)

Apple is adding in a gesture for accessing Command Center from anywhere on an iOS device. A quick swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you are graced with a panel filled with toggles for Airplane mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, brightness settings, music controls, camera shortcut, and even a flashlight. As you all know, Android devices have had access to similar information for a while thanks to 3rd party skins from manufacturers. But in Android 4.2, Google introduced a panel as well that can be accessed with a two-finger swipe down from the notification bar. Music controls have been in the notification bar for some time, so that’s not necessarily new.

Lock Screen Notifications

I found this out today, but apparently iOS did not let you access their notification center from the lock screen. Android has been on this trend for at least two versions, but Apple is just now introducing it with iOS 7. Once released, iOS users will be able to swipe down their notification bar without unlocking their device.

The new notification center has done away with that terrible looking felt background and is more transparent. There are tabs for “Today,” “All,” and “Missed.” I like the idea of panels, though Android seems to have been able to handle all of this information without needing extra panels. Thanks to actionable and collapsable notifications on Android, you only need one area for all of this.

Safari vs. Chrome

Safari is Safari – most people can’t stand it and prefer browsers like Chrome for their browsing needs. But one thing we thought was interesting in the new UI of Safari, was the tab view that shows all open tabs. They bragged about the 3D appearance, scrolling, and quick access to other tabs yet we have had this in Chrome for Android since it was first released over a year ago.

Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking! iOS 7 has a new style of multi-tasking that only runs in the background when it thinks you want access to frequently used apps. It essentially learns from your patterns to help extend your battery life. That’s kind of cool, assuming it can learn properly, which we won’t know anything about until people can spend some time with it. But in general, we like the idea of phones learning our patterns to better optimize our lives with them.

But in terms of a UI, Apple created something semi-unique. It’s not an exact copy of Android, since it scrolls horizontally and features full-screen previews of currently running apps. It does look a lot like what HTC did back with Sense 4, though HTC abandoned the look after hearing pretty terrible reviews of the change.

iTunes Radio vs. Google Music

Apple did in fact announce a Pandora competitor this morning called iTunes Radio. It’s really not all that game-changing or innovative. You can create your own radio playlists based off of songs, or you can use recommended stations that Apple has ready to go. There are massive “BUY” buttons all over the place, along with ads, unless you are an iTunes Match customer. But you can’t save full albums or tracks to your library like you can with Google’s new All Access service, nor can you pick and choose specific songs to create playlists. It’s just like Pandora in that it brings up songs that it thinks match what you are looking for and then allows you to downvote them or favorite them, so that they’ll play more often. It’s a nice add-on to iTunes, but nothing new.

In terms of looks, the new Google Music and new Music apps look a lot a like. We’re seeing white menus and similar UI with big, bold album art.

Also, we should point out that Google Music All Access gives you unlimited access to albums and songs because it comes with a monthly fee.

Mail

While I don’t know how many people actually use the stock Mail app in iOS, it’s easy to see that they have stolen features from the popular iOS app called Mailbox. Apple added in swiping gestures, for deleting, archiving, and “More” options. It’s a complete copy of what Mailbox already made popular, and I can’t believe people aren’t throwing massive fits over this. But then again, this is what Apple does time and time again to its developer community.

Oh, and Gmail has had swipe-to-delete/archive for longer than I can recall.

Calendars

The new iOS Calendar app doesn’t look all that much like that of Android, but the similarities are still there. We’re looking at an ultra-minimal design, with flat rectangles, pastel-ish colors, and a white background rather than the round appearance of the current iOS Calendar app. And in fact, the newest Calendar app from Google has similar design in the circular color picker and date chooser to what we are seeing in iOS, only it came out a couple of weeks ago.

Navigation Drawers

Apple added a bunch of slideout navigation drawers to apps like Mail and iMessage. We have seen these in Google apps for over a year now (even the ones on iOS), but they made a point of the addition today as if it were something “new” to app development. No, Apple, it’s not new.

Lock Screens

Al Gore

Actually, Al Gore has nothing to do with Android that I know of, but he was there. So, here is a picture of him looking flat.

Other Notes

Semi-live Wallpapers: Apple showed off a new wallpaper that moved the background as you tilted your device from side to side. It’s almost like a live wallpaper on Android, but even more so like 3D Image Live Wallpaper that has been on Google Play for a while. Yes, you can get down with Apple’s fancy new wallpaper feature today, on Android.

Auto-app Updates: I didn’t realize that Apple hadn’t introduced auto-app updates yet on iOS, but in iOS 7, users will finally have the option to update automatically. They joked about seeing the “Update” count climbing throughout the day and that iOS users would no longer have to worry about that. Add that to the list of things we take for granted on Android, already.

Bing (hah!): The new iOS in the Car feature introduced today uses Bing for search. Yes, Bing. Edit: Apparently it’s Siri that has Bing, making Siri even less of an important piece of the Apple pie, which I didn’t think was possible.

Notification Sync: They touched on this ever-so-briefly, but I believe Apple mentioned that with iOS 7, devices will be able to sync notifications across devices. Google just started doing this with Hangouts on Android, but made a point of it coming to other apps in the future during their I/O keynote.

Send-to-Phone: Apple showed off a send-to-phone feature from Calendar and Maps Mac apps today. Say you have a calendar item set up with a location or are looking at something in Apple’s newly announced Mac Maps app, you can send it quickly to your phone and have it readily available. Nice idea, but Google knows your searches thanks to Google Now and makes them automatically available to you on your other devices – you don’t need to send a thing.

Maps for Mac: Speaking of Maps for Mac, hah. Google.com/maps is all I have to say.

AirDrop: One of the more interesting features that Apple showed off today was called AirDrop. It allows you to quickly send information (photos as an example) to your friends’ iOS devices without the need to bump them together. Yes, they poked fun at NFC and the ridiculous tapping we have to do as Android users, in order to share things. Thing is, Samsung devices do this already with a little thing called WiFi Direct. Nice idea that is baked into iOS devices, though. Keep in mind that this feature won’t be available on all iOS devices – it’s limited to the new guys.

I’m sure there were other things we could list, since the keynote was lengthy, but these were the new features or ideas that stood out the most. As you can see, iOS 7 is actually a pretty major change from iOS6, bringing it steps closer to the power of Android. It’s not going to kill Android or give Apple some immediate leg up on the world’s most popular mobile operating system, but it does make at least the design of their UI a hell of a lot more appealing. In the end, Android users saw a lot of what they are already accustomed to, which they have already grown accustomed to.

If you are a fan of tech as a general subject, then today is a day to pay attention. There may not be many Android-related bits, but as most of you know, there will be plenty from its number one competitor. Today kicks off WWDC, Apple’s developer conference, where they have already essentially confirmed that they will unveil their next version of iOS. But outside of Apple, E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) starts this morning with Microsoft on stage to discuss all things XBOX One. And actually, the event runs simultaneously with Apple’s WWDC keynote, so juggling news out of both should be entertaining to say the least. Finally, later this evening, Sony will finish up day 1 at E3 to talk PlayStation 4.

In terms of Apple news, we’d be lying if we said that we weren’t going to be paying attention to their every move this morning. The WWDC keynote will be streamed here, so all of you can watch as they reinvent all sorts of things. But truthfully, as a member of the tech media I’m at least interested to see what they can do. The new iOS7 is supposed to be a drastic change in terms of design, meaning they’ll be leaving behind those atrocious icons and textures that mimic leather bound notebooks and casino gaming tables. We’re fans of good design and competitors pushing the industry forward – something Apple has done a time or two.

Also, we love seeing how many new features they introduce that have been on Android from 2010. There will be reactions, more than likely. Stay tuned for those.

Things with Apple kick off at 10AM Pacific. You’ll need Safari, a Mac, or an iOS device to watch it.

At E3, the two heavyweights in the console game will both shed more light on everything they had not previously mentioned during their console unveilings of the XBOX One and PlayStation 4. We have already seen the XBOX One, so this may be more of a gaming showcase rather than hardware speak for Microsoft. Sony, on the other hand, failed to produce hardware at their PS4 announcement, so we at least have that to look forward to from them.

Microsoft’s live show at E3 runs from 9AM Pacific to 11:40AM, EA and Ubisoft will dominate the middle portion of the day, and Sony gets the last word starting at 5:20PM Pacific.

]]>http://www.droid-life.com/2013/06/10/a-big-day-in-tech-apples-wwdc-2013-keynote-xbox-and-sony-at-e3/feed/72A Quick Look at iOS 6 and Its New Android Featureshttp://www.droid-life.com/2012/06/11/a-quick-look-at-ios-6-and-its-new-android-features/
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/06/11/a-quick-look-at-ios-6-and-its-new-android-features/#commentsMon, 11 Jun 2012 20:51:00 +0000http://www.droid-life.com/?p=72271A Quick Look at iOS 6 and Its New Android Features is a post from: Droid Life
]]>

Whenever a new version of iOS is announced by Apple, we usually take a few minutes to look at the features that were highlighted and compare them to Android, since in many cases, Android users have been experiencing the “new” fun for years. With iOS 6, the same can be said again, but to give credit to Apple this time around, we have to point out that words like “reinvented” weren’t used much if at all. During today’s presentation at WWDC, Apple’s execs seemed to give off the impression that they knew they weren’t changing the game “again,” but were finally adding in features that should have been there long ago.

If you are reading tech blogs across the globe today who insist that iOS 6 is the greatest thing since Zapp’s Cajun Crawtator chips, we are here to show you that you can do all of this stuff now on your Android device and more.

Maps

Apple did indeed kick Google Maps to the curb in favor of their own map solution, dubbed “Maps.” From what we could tell, it’s your standard maps + navigation app that Android users have enjoyed for years now. They have 3D images of cities, turn-by-turn directions with voice, traffic and route recommendations, etc. No reinventing here, especially without transit directions (that we know of), offline maps, and social integration, all of which are embedded in Google Maps.

Safari and Tab Syncing

For those with Chrome installed on a computer and Android phone, you know that Chrome has had tab syncing across devices for almost 2 months now. Apple introduced it to iOS 6 and Safari today, but since no one uses Safari, I’m not sure how useful this can actually be to iOS users. Chrome is the most popular browser in the world and has this feature already included. Then again, this is Apple’s way of getting you to use Safari on a desktop if you want to take advantage of syncing. Sorry, iFolks.

Facebook Integration

As they did with Twitter in iOS 5, Apple announced “deep” Facebook integration. You can now post to Facebook in an instant, share URLs quickly, and allow it to sync with your calendar and contacts. Android users, you can do all of this with much more than just Facebook and Twitter. In fact, almost every single app that needs it, has sharing capabilities. If you want to share something with Pocket or Google Drive or Dropbox or Gmail or Facebook or Twitter, you can, just by hitting the share button. You aren’t locked into only sharing things with Twitter and Facebook. Calendar and Contact integration has also been there for longer than I can remember. Google removed it a tad with stock ICS, but custom skins from HTC, Samsung and Motorola all kept it in.

Siri

The coolest thing I saw today during the iOS 6 presentation was Siri returning sports scores and stats. With each Siri knock-off Android app, one of the first questions I always ask has to do with last night’s games. They always come back empty and ask if I want to search the internet. They also tossed in Yelp, OpenTable, and movie stuff, which could come in handy from time to time. Still though, everyone with an iPhone 4S that I know tells me every time I ask, that they never use Siri.

Google still doesn’t have their own Siri-like app, other than Voice Actions which are limited. At Google I/O this month, they are expected to show something off that should compete in this space.

Phone and Quick Reply

Quick replies during incoming calls! Nope, not an iOS 6 original. Through Android, stock or a variety of skins, if you quickly hang up on someone, you are almost always prompted with a menu to either text them or be reminded of that call at a later time. With most, you can even create canned text messages that can be fired off in an instant. It’s a great feature, just one that has been around for a while.

FaceTime over Cellular

In previous version of iOS, you were not allowed to FaceTime video chat with people unless you were connected to a WiFi network. In iOS 6, you can finally make FaceTime calls over a cellular network, however, this is not new and has been done with a variety of video chatting apps on Android, but most importantly, natively through Google Talk for some time now. Hell, I think it has been around since Gingerbread almost 2 years ago.

Passbook

Apple announced a new app called Passbook which stores flight information, coupons, movie tickets and loyalty cards. It’s time and location based, so if you enter your favorite coffee shop, your phone will automatically pop up your coffee rewards card for quick scanning. As you enter an airport, it will pull up your flight info and potentially notify you should your gate change. This is actually a cool idea. There are Android apps out there that do similar stuff, but not as an all-in-one application.

Mail

In iOS 6, Apple added a “VIP” mail category that acts in a similar way to Gmail’s priority inbox. You can set up select people (or I’m assuming groups too) that will hit your VIP inbox while those boring work emails will slide to your regular folder. It’s a handy feature, but like I said, Gmail’s priority inbox does something similar, but actually learns on the fly so there is no manual setup. They also tossed in easy photo embedding into emails, something that has been in Android since the beginning of time.

Fragmentation

Oh, they didn’t announce fragmentation? Those little footnotes at the bottom of the Maps and Siri pages that read, “Flyover and turn-by-turn navigation will be available only on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later” and “Siri will be available only on iPhone 4S and iPad (3rd generation)” made it seem like they did. So let me get this straight, iOS devices are updated to the newest versions of iOS at some incredible pace, making Android look so silly on giant projector slides, but those new versions of iOS don’t even include all of the same features? There you go Android OEMs, now you know the trick – just start pulling features from your updates to push them out faster. (Cheers SR!)

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And that’s pretty much it. Apple said that there are some 200 new features, but these were the big dogs that they showed off on stage and are likely the most noteworthy. What we can take from this, without being too nasty to this other mobile operating system, is that both Android and iOS are becoming more polished with each new release. There probably isn’t much room for something dramatic to happen at this point, so it’s the little things that they’ll continue to add in. This latest iOS release includes a whole bunch of stuff that has been in Android for a long, long time – most of it is incredibly useful by the way – so we are glad to see our frenemies get in on the action. If you were looking for that game changer though, it didn’t happen.

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In case you were wondering (wait, why would you be?), Apple’s developer conference, WWDC, kicks off this morning in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. During their opening keynote, everyone expects them to introduce iOS 6 and all sorts of new features that will forever change the way smartphones work (sarcasm much?). As you may recall from last year, iOS 5 apparently did the same thing, however, anyone who has used an Android phone over the last 3-4 years knows that much of those newly introduced features were standard fare from day 1 on this platform. You know things like, notifications, OTA updates, tabbed browsing, an IM client, etc.

So with this iOS 6 business about to happen, let’s have some fun with it. What Android features are we going to see? Any chance that Apple introduces something new or is it going to be to take Siri out of beta, which will be followed by an extra 5 Zooey Deschanel commercials per hour? Reinvent, people!